


maybe i could learn to love you in another life

by awkwardspaceturtle



Category: Bleach
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Ficlet, Hueco Mundo Arc, Resurrection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:48:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22650508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awkwardspaceturtle/pseuds/awkwardspaceturtle
Summary: Ulquiorra is already used to the eternal night of Hueco Mundo. He was born in this darkness, he thrived even in oblivion. And yet as Orihime finally breaks, a part of him seems to be mourning the fact that the night may just settle forever with no hope for sunrise.
Relationships: Inoue Orihime/Kurosaki Ichigo, Ulquiorra Cifer/Inoue Orihime
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19





	maybe i could learn to love you in another life

**Author's Note:**

> So I was in a BLEACH mood, and reread the Arrancar/Hueco Mundo Arc. Cue the emotions.
> 
> Note: This is IchiHime-heavy, while Ulquiorra's is one-sided(?)

_"Kurosaki-kun!"_

She yells, voice raw and hoarse and clawing at her throat. She screams his name over and over until her cries are nothing but a frightened creature's last resort, her pleas falling on dead ears.

Ulquiorra appears before her, and as he gets a closer look, he realizes that this is the worse he's ever seen her -- she was never at ease here, but she had always tried her damnedest not to crack under the pressure and break -- not when he ordered her to come with him, not when she shared a room with the entire Espada and Aizen, not even when her life was constantly at risk.

The sun was never really gone from her eyes. Until now.

Ulquiorra senses the Quincy boy draw his arrow at him -- too slow -- and he dodges in time.

She spares no second in using his distraction to find her way to what's left of her heart -- and she freezes.

Kurosaki Ichigo remains motionless at her feet.

Dead.

She falls hard on her knees. All her strength has left her, and she has never looked so frail.

Ulquiorra is already used to the eternal night of Hueco Mundo. He was born in this darkness, he thrived even in oblivion. And yet as Orihime finally breaks, a part of him seems to be mourning the fact that the night may just settle forever with no hope for sunrise.

This, he thinks, is total despair, in its truest form.

This, he realizes, is the most isolating thing of all.

Right there where she knelt, weeping and cradling her head, is the loneliest place in the universe.

Then, just as Ulquiorra thinks she has nothing left in her, she screams out one final desperate plea. The rest followed in the span of a few breaths -- more explosions that rocked the pale blanket of sand -- and Ulquiorra finds himself at the mercy of the monster that Orihime's despair created.

Her despair, in its purity and totality, brought life back from death -- this is the result of her heart rupturing and putting itself back together. 

How had it been possible? For her complete sadness to birth resurrection? For a creature born of despair to see no foe nor friend, but her and her alone? He might never know, nor begin to comprehend. Because all at once, mortality has finally caught up to him.

As the ash and sand begin to settle, and his body starts to betray him, he catches her gaze.

She doesn't look empty, no. On the contrary, she looks like she still has more of her heart to give.

There is light in her darkened, weary eyes. The light of hope, and of tears.

Why-- _why_ does she look pained for him? Why does she make him want to reach out for her? Why does she reach back out to him?

He doesn't understand at all, but wait-- maybe he does. In the strangest way, he _does_. And he thinks she understands, too.

For the first time, he thinks he feels regret. And sadness, loneliness. But he won't be around for longer to dwell on that.

_"Are you afraid of me, girl?"_

Of all the things he has questions for that will never be answered, this is what he wants to know the most. As if this will give closure to his entire existence and put him to rest, if he even deserves it.

And for the first time, he feels nervous anticipation for her answer.

But he knows, without knowing why he knows, that something has formed between them. Something no one can see.

She fights back tears -- _why are you crying for me?_ \-- and she looks at him in a way that he thinks he does not deserve.

But that may just be exactly why she let the sun rise in his otherwise dark eternal night.

_"No."_

Relief.

He can leave, knowing that the sun will not set forever.

When the thing beating in his chest finally fades to ash without hope of regenerating, this is the last thing he feels.


End file.
